Category: Student Posts

Abhayvir Singh

Response 5 of 5

“Families for Freedom Against Deportation and Delegalization”

By Subash Kateel and Aarti Shahani

This piece presents a view long internalized by immigrants and to see it on print, is reassuring. While every sentence is dense and carries innate meaning, the following excerpt best summarizes the concept introduced. “Today, the United States cannot write race into the letter of law…But as migrants from Latin America, Asia, and Africa have replaced European flows, immigration status has been used as code for race” (258). Continue reading “Detention and Deportation”

Rebecca Kreiser

Reflection 4/5

(Un)documented Immigrant Media Makers and the Search for Online Connection- Sarah C. Bishop

The anonymity of NYC can be viewed as an extraordinarily contradictory social construct. For those who want to escape their past, the City offers a fresh start where nobody cares where an individual comes from. On the other hand, for those looking to connect with others like themselves, NYC can be a place of total isolation. Here, it is only the openness of the internet that enables the possibility of connection.

Continue reading “NYC’s Anonymity”

Response 5

“(Un)documented immigrant media makers and the search for connection online” by Sarah C. Bishop

In “(Un)documented immigrant media makers and the search for connection online,” by Sarah C. Bishop, a group of undocumented activists and media makers come together to tell their side of the story. This project was created to show that even though they are undocumented, they are not perpetrators. Simply, they are trying to make a life in this foreign country without the unfair treatment that comes with it.

Continue reading “Undocumented Immigrants Assimilating”

Stefan Nikolic

(Post 2 of 5)

After reconstruction failed in the late 1870s African Americans wanted to relocate themselves from the south. The article “Selling the American dream myth to black southerner as: the Chicago Defender and the great migration of 1915-1919” by Alan DeSantis covers the reasons why the majority of African Americans flocked to the north east. He covers many theories, but the three most relevant ones are the Push-pull economic theory, the socio-emotional theory, and the Chicago Defender theory.

Continue reading “The Chicago Defender’s Influence on Migration”

Response 4 of 5

“Selling the American dream myth to black southerners: The Chicago defender and the great migration of 1915-1919”

Between 1915 and 1919, there was a large influx of African Americans migrating from the South to the North. Many settled in areas like Detroit, Chicago and New York because of the desire to achieve the American Dream. They believed that the North was the “new Mecca”. Some incentives for the migration included wealth, family ties and freedom. It was believed that there were economic opportunities in the North including open jobs due to many people away fighting in World War 1. Additionally, it was more likely for people to migrate if they had friends and family there, giving attention to the idea of enclaves. Finally, the South contained a lot of oppression, racism and lynching; therefore, many African Americans wanted a new beginning.

“Selling the American dream myth to black southerners: The Chicago defender and the great migration of 1915-1919,” brings the Chicago Defender into light, a black newspaper that “persuaded discontented southern blacks to migrate to the North by waging a migration campaign that utilized the recurring themes found in the American-Dream Myth.” The authors of the newspaper used three stages for their rhetorical campaign: Southern Discontent Stage, Land-of-Hope Stage and Action Stage. Each of these stages built on the others and were used as a way to entice Southerners. Although the Southerners were already aware of the promises in the North and the oppression they were in, the Chicago Defender helped to exemplify and explicitly write out the American Dream that they lacked. This was often passed around to family members, read in public spaces and looked at by about seven people before it was put down.

This journal brings out the concept of enclaves that is discussed in the class. Before the Great Migration, many African Americans lived in states like Georgia, Louisiana, and South Carolina. They created their own communities there and it was a place of familiarity for them. However, due to promising incentives that the North believed to have, many migrated to states like Harlem in New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago. After relocating to the North, new enclaves were created to experience the familiarity that they had back home. This idea of closeness draws to the other reading, Island’s in the City: West African Migration to New York, by Nancy Foner. She writes, “Walking along Brooklyn’s Flatbush Avenue, one immediately notices that the Caribbean has come to New York. All along the avenue, signals of a vibrant Caribbean immigrant presence shout at even the most casual observer.” In Section 3 of Foner’s book, she discusses the West Indian culture present along Flatbush Avenue due to the increase in Caribbean immigrants. This also speaks to the idea of cultural enclaves where immigrants all gather in one place and bring the community that they had before to their new home.

1. 1. Will cultural enclaves ever stop?
2. 2. How do immigrants decide what to bring to their new home? (For example, how do they decide to bring one dish, but not another dish?)

Rachel Swed

Reflection 5 of 5

The man in the White Sharkskin Suit by: Lucette Lagnado                           

In her book The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit, Lucette Lagnado begins talking about her father’s life as a successful businessman always dressed in fine attire. Living in Cairo, her father, Leon had a very busy schedule that included waking up to pray at the crack of dawn, going to work, and staying up late gambling way past midnight which he would finally go to bed and start his day all over again. Leon’s lifestyle ended shortly when he met his wife Edith and she was expecting her first child. However, when Leon discovered it was a girl, his lifestyle quickly continued to Edith’s dismay. Edith and Leon had three more kids including our author Lucette known as Loulou in her book. In Cario, everything was very family oriented, Leon lived with his mother Zairfa and cousin Salamone. The family lived a lavish life with expensive clothes, maids who did all the housework, and a spacious house on Malka Nazli street. Everyone loved living in Egypt. But this took a huge turn when Nassar took control and there was a lot of anti-semitism in the area. Many relatives already moved to Israel or America. Nevertheless, Leon was reluctant to leave his life in Egypt. However, one night Suzette was arrested and this made the decision for Leon and the family to leave. The new government of Egypt pronounced that people could not take a lot of money with them only clothes. So, the family bought a lot of fancy new clothes and left Egypt with twenty-six suitcases. They stopped at Paris where they stayed in a dingy old hotel until the family knew where they wanted to go. They were torn whether they wanted to reunite with family in Israel or America. When they were sure they wanted to go to Israel, Edith’s mother, Alexandria died. This discouraged them from going to Israel so they then decided to go to America. When they arrived, they were situated in another hotel. This time, they were pressured to find an apartment right away and get settled on their own. Leon, already an old man, had a hard time finding a job. The older kids went to work right away. Leon settled for selling ties and cloths to strangers on the street with Loulou. They found a four-room apartment in Bensonhurst and settled down. Even in America, Leon still longed for Cairo. However, Loulou wanted to be more Americanized like having a sofa with a plastic slipcover. In America, they still move a few times when their circumstances change such as, landlords kicking them out or when Suzette and Caesar left they found a smaller two-room apartment. Moving to America was a very hard change for the Lagnado family but they managed and found their way eventually. Continue reading “Migration to NYC”

Abhayvir Singh

Response 4 of 5

“Selling the American dream myth to black southerners: The Chicago defender and the great migration of 1915-1919”

By Alan D. Desantis

The Reconstruction era from 1863 to 1877 failed to bring significant change in the lives of African-Americans in the south. 1915 to 1919 marked the era when African-Americans abandoned the south and fled up north for a better life. Such significant was the resettlement that this period is known as the Great Migration. Continue reading “The Belated American Dream”

By Charles Lauer

Reading #1 – Alan D. DeSantis, “Selling the American dream myth to black southerners: The Chicago defender and the great migration of 1915-1919,” June 6, 2009, Pg. 474-511

(Response 2 out of 5)

“… No rhetorical text was more pervasive, more overtly dedicated to encouraging the mass exodus of blacks out of the south, or more fervent in its promotion of northern virtues than was the black, weekly newspaper, the Chicago Defender.” (DeSantis, 476-477)

The Reconstruction Era had ended by 1877 and many promises from the time period still hadn’t materialized decades later. By 1915, done waiting for the proposals of yesteryear,  nearly 10% of the South’s African American population fled North-bound.  As a result, between 1910 and 1920, New York’s black population grew 66%, Chicago’s black contingency grew 148%, and Detroit’s small black community mushroomed to an almost unbelievable 611% increase. This mass movement north would later be labeled as the “Great Migration”.

When asked what were the motivating factors behind the “Great Migration” there seems to be a lot of self-evident answers.  The first being the prospect of better economic opportunities. It’s no secret that being Black up north, during the early 20th century, afforded you things you’d be lucky to find back South, like fair pay, increased employment options, and fair distribution of property.  Finding jobs, buying food and securing shelter, was simply easier once out of the South.

Continue reading ““The Chicago Defender”: The Great Migration’s Unsung Hero”

Immigration and Crime: Race, Ethnicity, and Violence, Intro
Ramiro Martinez, Abel Valenzuela, Jr ed.

Response 3 of 5
by Anna

New York, a city of constant flux, is known to be a hub of immigration. It is home to Queens, the urban place with the global record of ethnic diversity. (Wikipedia) But just because so many people exist in the same place, they don’t always coexist peacefully. Popular sentiment is that an increase of immigration equals an increase in crime. However, according to Ramiro Martinez and Abel Valenzuela, Jr ed, the data points to the contrary. If the numbers suggest one thing, why is public opinion the opposite?

Continue reading “Immigration and Crime: Race, Ethnicity, and Violence”